Props:
Personal identities in the Portrait Photography of Richard SamuelRoberts

The
term “props” brings to mind the objects used in the theater that help establish
the meaning of a scene. In this theater context, the word is shortened from
“properties,” things collectively owned by a theater group. But could the term
also reflect the notion that props show “properties” of a character, offering
layers of information and meaning to a viewer.? “Props” is also a slang term,
meaning “proper respect.” In this show, we analyze the props in photographic
portraits taken by RSR between 1920-1936 to see the way that the “props”—most
often objects chosen by the sitters themselves—tell us something about the
self-identity of the sitters. The objects chosen often underscore the proper
respect due the sitters based on their attainments, but also can give
insights—in an otherwise very formulaic genre—into the inner desires and
predilections of the sitters. Props thus can help us see beyond the surface,
or, perhaps conversely, can reify socially-agreed upon tropes.

As
the 35th Presidential International Scholar, Lydia Estes attempted to uncover
the visual representation of la mujer, or
the woman, in the South American countries of Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and
Peru. Siendo mujer means "being a woman", and
this exhibition represents the conversations she shared with resilient,
creative women for whom art plays a significant role in their female
experiences and vice versa--for whom the female experience plays a significant
role in their art.

It
is further a collection of their artwork, also including her own photographs of
them, their spaces, and moments which contribute to the story each is trying to
tell through their work. Her research revealed more questions like, how
are women stereotypically portrayed in their societies? How are female artists
confronting these images through their own artwork, and how are the mediums
they work in an aspect of their protest? And lastly, how will art change the
female experience in future South American societies?

From the haunting novels of William
Faulkner to the gritty short stories of Flannery O'Connor, the Southern Gothic
literary tradition has exhumed and examined the American South’s unique
mystery, contradictions, and dark humor. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth
century, American writers, epitomized by Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel
Hawthorne, sought to reinterpret the Gothic imagination of their European
counterparts, dramatizing the cultures and characters of a region in the midst
of civil war and its tumultuous aftermath. Decades later, a new generation of
authors—including Tennessee Williams, Carson McCullers, and Toni Morrison—wove
Gothic elements into their own narratives, exploring the complexities of a changing
social terrain and the ancient spirits that linger in its corners.

With works drawn exclusively from the
Johnson Collection, Southern Gothic illuminates how nineteenth- and
twentieth-century artists employed a potent visual language to transcribe the
tensions between the South’s idyllic aura and its historical realities. Often
described as a mood or sensibility rather than a strict set of thematic or
technical conventions, features of the Southern Gothic can include horror,
romance, and the supernatural. While academic painters such as Charles Fraser
and Thomas Noble conveyed the genre’s gloomy tonalities in their canvases,
Aaron Douglas and Harry Hoffman grappled with the injustices of a modern world.
Other artists, including Alexander Brook and Eugene Thomason, investigated
prevailing stereotypes of rural Southerners—a trope often accentuated in
Southern Gothic literature. Collectively, these images demonstrate that
definitions of the Gothic are neither monolithic nor momentary, inviting us,
instead to contemplate how the Southern Gothic legacy continues to inform our
understanding of the American South.

Props:
Personal identities in the Portrait Photography of Richard SamuelRoberts

The
term “props” brings to mind the objects used in the theater that help establish
the meaning of a scene. In this theater context, the word is shortened from
“properties,” things collectively owned by a theater group. But could the term
also reflect the notion that props show “properties” of a character, offering
layers of information and meaning to a viewer.? “Props” is also a slang term,
meaning “proper respect.” In this show, we analyze the props in photographic
portraits taken by RSR between 1920-1936 to see the way that the “props”—most
often objects chosen by the sitters themselves—tell us something about the
self-identity of the sitters. The objects chosen often underscore the proper
respect due the sitters based on their attainments, but also can give
insights—in an otherwise very formulaic genre—into the inner desires and
predilections of the sitters. Props thus can help us see beyond the surface,
or, perhaps conversely, can reify socially-agreed upon tropes.

As
the 35th Presidential International Scholar, Lydia Estes attempted to uncover
the visual representation of la mujer, or
the woman, in the South American countries of Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and
Peru. Siendo mujer means "being a woman", and
this exhibition represents the conversations she shared with resilient,
creative women for whom art plays a significant role in their female
experiences and vice versa--for whom the female experience plays a significant
role in their art.

It
is further a collection of their artwork, also including her own photographs of
them, their spaces, and moments which contribute to the story each is trying to
tell through their work. Her research revealed more questions like, how
are women stereotypically portrayed in their societies? How are female artists
confronting these images through their own artwork, and how are the mediums
they work in an aspect of their protest? And lastly, how will art change the
female experience in future South American societies?

From the haunting novels of William
Faulkner to the gritty short stories of Flannery O'Connor, the Southern Gothic
literary tradition has exhumed and examined the American South’s unique
mystery, contradictions, and dark humor. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth
century, American writers, epitomized by Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel
Hawthorne, sought to reinterpret the Gothic imagination of their European
counterparts, dramatizing the cultures and characters of a region in the midst
of civil war and its tumultuous aftermath. Decades later, a new generation of
authors—including Tennessee Williams, Carson McCullers, and Toni Morrison—wove
Gothic elements into their own narratives, exploring the complexities of a changing
social terrain and the ancient spirits that linger in its corners.

With works drawn exclusively from the
Johnson Collection, Southern Gothic illuminates how nineteenth- and
twentieth-century artists employed a potent visual language to transcribe the
tensions between the South’s idyllic aura and its historical realities. Often
described as a mood or sensibility rather than a strict set of thematic or
technical conventions, features of the Southern Gothic can include horror,
romance, and the supernatural. While academic painters such as Charles Fraser
and Thomas Noble conveyed the genre’s gloomy tonalities in their canvases,
Aaron Douglas and Harry Hoffman grappled with the injustices of a modern world.
Other artists, including Alexander Brook and Eugene Thomason, investigated
prevailing stereotypes of rural Southerners—a trope often accentuated in
Southern Gothic literature. Collectively, these images demonstrate that
definitions of the Gothic are neither monolithic nor momentary, inviting us,
instead to contemplate how the Southern Gothic legacy continues to inform our
understanding of the American South.

Props:
Personal identities in the Portrait Photography of Richard SamuelRoberts

The
term “props” brings to mind the objects used in the theater that help establish
the meaning of a scene. In this theater context, the word is shortened from
“properties,” things collectively owned by a theater group. But could the term
also reflect the notion that props show “properties” of a character, offering
layers of information and meaning to a viewer.? “Props” is also a slang term,
meaning “proper respect.” In this show, we analyze the props in photographic
portraits taken by RSR between 1920-1936 to see the way that the “props”—most
often objects chosen by the sitters themselves—tell us something about the
self-identity of the sitters. The objects chosen often underscore the proper
respect due the sitters based on their attainments, but also can give
insights—in an otherwise very formulaic genre—into the inner desires and
predilections of the sitters. Props thus can help us see beyond the surface,
or, perhaps conversely, can reify socially-agreed upon tropes.

As
the 35th Presidential International Scholar, Lydia Estes attempted to uncover
the visual representation of la mujer, or
the woman, in the South American countries of Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and
Peru. Siendo mujer means "being a woman", and
this exhibition represents the conversations she shared with resilient,
creative women for whom art plays a significant role in their female
experiences and vice versa--for whom the female experience plays a significant
role in their art.

It
is further a collection of their artwork, also including her own photographs of
them, their spaces, and moments which contribute to the story each is trying to
tell through their work. Her research revealed more questions like, how
are women stereotypically portrayed in their societies? How are female artists
confronting these images through their own artwork, and how are the mediums
they work in an aspect of their protest? And lastly, how will art change the
female experience in future South American societies?

From the haunting novels of William
Faulkner to the gritty short stories of Flannery O'Connor, the Southern Gothic
literary tradition has exhumed and examined the American South’s unique
mystery, contradictions, and dark humor. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth
century, American writers, epitomized by Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel
Hawthorne, sought to reinterpret the Gothic imagination of their European
counterparts, dramatizing the cultures and characters of a region in the midst
of civil war and its tumultuous aftermath. Decades later, a new generation of
authors—including Tennessee Williams, Carson McCullers, and Toni Morrison—wove
Gothic elements into their own narratives, exploring the complexities of a changing
social terrain and the ancient spirits that linger in its corners.

With works drawn exclusively from the
Johnson Collection, Southern Gothic illuminates how nineteenth- and
twentieth-century artists employed a potent visual language to transcribe the
tensions between the South’s idyllic aura and its historical realities. Often
described as a mood or sensibility rather than a strict set of thematic or
technical conventions, features of the Southern Gothic can include horror,
romance, and the supernatural. While academic painters such as Charles Fraser
and Thomas Noble conveyed the genre’s gloomy tonalities in their canvases,
Aaron Douglas and Harry Hoffman grappled with the injustices of a modern world.
Other artists, including Alexander Brook and Eugene Thomason, investigated
prevailing stereotypes of rural Southerners—a trope often accentuated in
Southern Gothic literature. Collectively, these images demonstrate that
definitions of the Gothic are neither monolithic nor momentary, inviting us,
instead to contemplate how the Southern Gothic legacy continues to inform our
understanding of the American South.

Props:
Personal identities in the Portrait Photography of Richard SamuelRoberts

The
term “props” brings to mind the objects used in the theater that help establish
the meaning of a scene. In this theater context, the word is shortened from
“properties,” things collectively owned by a theater group. But could the term
also reflect the notion that props show “properties” of a character, offering
layers of information and meaning to a viewer.? “Props” is also a slang term,
meaning “proper respect.” In this show, we analyze the props in photographic
portraits taken by RSR between 1920-1936 to see the way that the “props”—most
often objects chosen by the sitters themselves—tell us something about the
self-identity of the sitters. The objects chosen often underscore the proper
respect due the sitters based on their attainments, but also can give
insights—in an otherwise very formulaic genre—into the inner desires and
predilections of the sitters. Props thus can help us see beyond the surface,
or, perhaps conversely, can reify socially-agreed upon tropes.

As
the 35th Presidential International Scholar, Lydia Estes attempted to uncover
the visual representation of la mujer, or
the woman, in the South American countries of Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and
Peru. Siendo mujer means "being a woman", and
this exhibition represents the conversations she shared with resilient,
creative women for whom art plays a significant role in their female
experiences and vice versa--for whom the female experience plays a significant
role in their art.

It
is further a collection of their artwork, also including her own photographs of
them, their spaces, and moments which contribute to the story each is trying to
tell through their work. Her research revealed more questions like, how
are women stereotypically portrayed in their societies? How are female artists
confronting these images through their own artwork, and how are the mediums
they work in an aspect of their protest? And lastly, how will art change the
female experience in future South American societies?

Southern
Gothic: Intersections of Art and Literature in the Johnson Collection

From Edgar
Allen Poe’s haunting tale of The Gold Bug (1843) to Flannery
O'Connor’s biting short story “Good Country People” (1955), the Southern
Gothic literary tradition has exhumed the American South’s aberrations,
contradictions, and unique sense of dark humor. Drawing exclusively
from the Johnson Collection, Southern Gothic examines how
nineteenth-and twentieth-century artists borrowed from their literary
peers, using a potent visual language to address the tensions between the
South’s idyllic visions and its historical realities.This exhibition is
guest curated by Elizabeth Driscoll Smith, a Ph.D. candidate from the
University California, Santa Barbara, and the Johnson Collection’s 2019
graduate fellow.

Props:
Personal identities in the Portrait Photography of Richard SamuelRoberts

The
term “props” brings to mind the objects used in the theater that help establish
the meaning of a scene. In this theater context, the word is shortened from
“properties,” things collectively owned by a theater group. But could the term
also reflect the notion that props show “properties” of a character, offering
layers of information and meaning to a viewer.? “Props” is also a slang term,
meaning “proper respect.” In this show, we analyze the props in photographic
portraits taken by RSR between 1920-1936 to see the way that the “props”—most
often objects chosen by the sitters themselves—tell us something about the
self-identity of the sitters. The objects chosen often underscore the proper
respect due the sitters based on their attainments, but also can give
insights—in an otherwise very formulaic genre—into the inner desires and
predilections of the sitters. Props thus can help us see beyond the surface,
or, perhaps conversely, can reify socially-agreed upon tropes.

As
the 35th Presidential International Scholar, Lydia Estes attempted to uncover
the visual representation of la mujer, or
the woman, in the South American countries of Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and
Peru. Siendo mujer means "being a woman", and
this exhibition represents the conversations she shared with resilient,
creative women for whom art plays a significant role in their female
experiences and vice versa--for whom the female experience plays a significant
role in their art.

It
is further a collection of their artwork, also including her own photographs of
them, their spaces, and moments which contribute to the story each is trying to
tell through their work. Her research revealed more questions like, how
are women stereotypically portrayed in their societies? How are female artists
confronting these images through their own artwork, and how are the mediums
they work in an aspect of their protest? And lastly, how will art change the
female experience in future South American societies?

From the haunting novels of William
Faulkner to the gritty short stories of Flannery O'Connor, the Southern Gothic
literary tradition has exhumed and examined the American South’s unique
mystery, contradictions, and dark humor. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth
century, American writers, epitomized by Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel
Hawthorne, sought to reinterpret the Gothic imagination of their European
counterparts, dramatizing the cultures and characters of a region in the midst
of civil war and its tumultuous aftermath. Decades later, a new generation of
authors—including Tennessee Williams, Carson McCullers, and Toni Morrison—wove
Gothic elements into their own narratives, exploring the complexities of a changing
social terrain and the ancient spirits that linger in its corners.

With works drawn exclusively from the
Johnson Collection, Southern Gothic illuminates how nineteenth- and
twentieth-century artists employed a potent visual language to transcribe the
tensions between the South’s idyllic aura and its historical realities. Often
described as a mood or sensibility rather than a strict set of thematic or
technical conventions, features of the Southern Gothic can include horror,
romance, and the supernatural. While academic painters such as Charles Fraser
and Thomas Noble conveyed the genre’s gloomy tonalities in their canvases,
Aaron Douglas and Harry Hoffman grappled with the injustices of a modern world.
Other artists, including Alexander Brook and Eugene Thomason, investigated
prevailing stereotypes of rural Southerners—a trope often accentuated in
Southern Gothic literature. Collectively, these images demonstrate that
definitions of the Gothic are neither monolithic nor momentary, inviting us,
instead to contemplate how the Southern Gothic legacy continues to inform our
understanding of the American South.

Props:
Personal identities in the Portrait Photography of Richard SamuelRoberts

The
term “props” brings to mind the objects used in the theater that help establish
the meaning of a scene. In this theater context, the word is shortened from
“properties,” things collectively owned by a theater group. But could the term
also reflect the notion that props show “properties” of a character, offering
layers of information and meaning to a viewer.? “Props” is also a slang term,
meaning “proper respect.” In this show, we analyze the props in photographic
portraits taken by RSR between 1920-1936 to see the way that the “props”—most
often objects chosen by the sitters themselves—tell us something about the
self-identity of the sitters. The objects chosen often underscore the proper
respect due the sitters based on their attainments, but also can give
insights—in an otherwise very formulaic genre—into the inner desires and
predilections of the sitters. Props thus can help us see beyond the surface,
or, perhaps conversely, can reify socially-agreed upon tropes.

As
the 35th Presidential International Scholar, Lydia Estes attempted to uncover
the visual representation of la mujer, or
the woman, in the South American countries of Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and
Peru. Siendo mujer means "being a woman", and
this exhibition represents the conversations she shared with resilient,
creative women for whom art plays a significant role in their female
experiences and vice versa--for whom the female experience plays a significant
role in their art.

It
is further a collection of their artwork, also including her own photographs of
them, their spaces, and moments which contribute to the story each is trying to
tell through their work. Her research revealed more questions like, how
are women stereotypically portrayed in their societies? How are female artists
confronting these images through their own artwork, and how are the mediums
they work in an aspect of their protest? And lastly, how will art change the
female experience in future South American societies?

From the haunting novels of William
Faulkner to the gritty short stories of Flannery O'Connor, the Southern Gothic
literary tradition has exhumed and examined the American South’s unique
mystery, contradictions, and dark humor. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth
century, American writers, epitomized by Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel
Hawthorne, sought to reinterpret the Gothic imagination of their European
counterparts, dramatizing the cultures and characters of a region in the midst
of civil war and its tumultuous aftermath. Decades later, a new generation of
authors—including Tennessee Williams, Carson McCullers, and Toni Morrison—wove
Gothic elements into their own narratives, exploring the complexities of a changing
social terrain and the ancient spirits that linger in its corners.

With works drawn exclusively from the
Johnson Collection, Southern Gothic illuminates how nineteenth- and
twentieth-century artists employed a potent visual language to transcribe the
tensions between the South’s idyllic aura and its historical realities. Often
described as a mood or sensibility rather than a strict set of thematic or
technical conventions, features of the Southern Gothic can include horror,
romance, and the supernatural. While academic painters such as Charles Fraser
and Thomas Noble conveyed the genre’s gloomy tonalities in their canvases,
Aaron Douglas and Harry Hoffman grappled with the injustices of a modern world.
Other artists, including Alexander Brook and Eugene Thomason, investigated
prevailing stereotypes of rural Southerners—a trope often accentuated in
Southern Gothic literature. Collectively, these images demonstrate that
definitions of the Gothic are neither monolithic nor momentary, inviting us,
instead to contemplate how the Southern Gothic legacy continues to inform our
understanding of the American South.

Props:
Personal identities in the Portrait Photography of Richard SamuelRoberts

The
term “props” brings to mind the objects used in the theater that help establish
the meaning of a scene. In this theater context, the word is shortened from
“properties,” things collectively owned by a theater group. But could the term
also reflect the notion that props show “properties” of a character, offering
layers of information and meaning to a viewer.? “Props” is also a slang term,
meaning “proper respect.” In this show, we analyze the props in photographic
portraits taken by RSR between 1920-1936 to see the way that the “props”—most
often objects chosen by the sitters themselves—tell us something about the
self-identity of the sitters. The objects chosen often underscore the proper
respect due the sitters based on their attainments, but also can give
insights—in an otherwise very formulaic genre—into the inner desires and
predilections of the sitters. Props thus can help us see beyond the surface,
or, perhaps conversely, can reify socially-agreed upon tropes.

As
the 35th Presidential International Scholar, Lydia Estes attempted to uncover
the visual representation of la mujer, or
the woman, in the South American countries of Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and
Peru. Siendo mujer means "being a woman", and
this exhibition represents the conversations she shared with resilient,
creative women for whom art plays a significant role in their female
experiences and vice versa--for whom the female experience plays a significant
role in their art.

It
is further a collection of their artwork, also including her own photographs of
them, their spaces, and moments which contribute to the story each is trying to
tell through their work. Her research revealed more questions like, how
are women stereotypically portrayed in their societies? How are female artists
confronting these images through their own artwork, and how are the mediums
they work in an aspect of their protest? And lastly, how will art change the
female experience in future South American societies?

From the haunting novels of William
Faulkner to the gritty short stories of Flannery O'Connor, the Southern Gothic
literary tradition has exhumed and examined the American South’s unique
mystery, contradictions, and dark humor. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth
century, American writers, epitomized by Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel
Hawthorne, sought to reinterpret the Gothic imagination of their European
counterparts, dramatizing the cultures and characters of a region in the midst
of civil war and its tumultuous aftermath. Decades later, a new generation of
authors—including Tennessee Williams, Carson McCullers, and Toni Morrison—wove
Gothic elements into their own narratives, exploring the complexities of a changing
social terrain and the ancient spirits that linger in its corners.

With works drawn exclusively from the
Johnson Collection, Southern Gothic illuminates how nineteenth- and
twentieth-century artists employed a potent visual language to transcribe the
tensions between the South’s idyllic aura and its historical realities. Often
described as a mood or sensibility rather than a strict set of thematic or
technical conventions, features of the Southern Gothic can include horror,
romance, and the supernatural. While academic painters such as Charles Fraser
and Thomas Noble conveyed the genre’s gloomy tonalities in their canvases,
Aaron Douglas and Harry Hoffman grappled with the injustices of a modern world.
Other artists, including Alexander Brook and Eugene Thomason, investigated
prevailing stereotypes of rural Southerners—a trope often accentuated in
Southern Gothic literature. Collectively, these images demonstrate that
definitions of the Gothic are neither monolithic nor momentary, inviting us,
instead to contemplate how the Southern Gothic legacy continues to inform our
understanding of the American South.

Props:
Personal identities in the Portrait Photography of Richard SamuelRoberts

The
term “props” brings to mind the objects used in the theater that help establish
the meaning of a scene. In this theater context, the word is shortened from
“properties,” things collectively owned by a theater group. But could the term
also reflect the notion that props show “properties” of a character, offering
layers of information and meaning to a viewer.? “Props” is also a slang term,
meaning “proper respect.” In this show, we analyze the props in photographic
portraits taken by RSR between 1920-1936 to see the way that the “props”—most
often objects chosen by the sitters themselves—tell us something about the
self-identity of the sitters. The objects chosen often underscore the proper
respect due the sitters based on their attainments, but also can give
insights—in an otherwise very formulaic genre—into the inner desires and
predilections of the sitters. Props thus can help us see beyond the surface,
or, perhaps conversely, can reify socially-agreed upon tropes.

As
the 35th Presidential International Scholar, Lydia Estes attempted to uncover
the visual representation of la mujer, or
the woman, in the South American countries of Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and
Peru. Siendo mujer means "being a woman", and
this exhibition represents the conversations she shared with resilient,
creative women for whom art plays a significant role in their female
experiences and vice versa--for whom the female experience plays a significant
role in their art.

It
is further a collection of their artwork, also including her own photographs of
them, their spaces, and moments which contribute to the story each is trying to
tell through their work. Her research revealed more questions like, how
are women stereotypically portrayed in their societies? How are female artists
confronting these images through their own artwork, and how are the mediums
they work in an aspect of their protest? And lastly, how will art change the
female experience in future South American societies?

From the haunting novels of William
Faulkner to the gritty short stories of Flannery O'Connor, the Southern Gothic
literary tradition has exhumed and examined the American South’s unique
mystery, contradictions, and dark humor. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth
century, American writers, epitomized by Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel
Hawthorne, sought to reinterpret the Gothic imagination of their European
counterparts, dramatizing the cultures and characters of a region in the midst
of civil war and its tumultuous aftermath. Decades later, a new generation of
authors—including Tennessee Williams, Carson McCullers, and Toni Morrison—wove
Gothic elements into their own narratives, exploring the complexities of a changing
social terrain and the ancient spirits that linger in its corners.

With works drawn exclusively from the
Johnson Collection, Southern Gothic illuminates how nineteenth- and
twentieth-century artists employed a potent visual language to transcribe the
tensions between the South’s idyllic aura and its historical realities. Often
described as a mood or sensibility rather than a strict set of thematic or
technical conventions, features of the Southern Gothic can include horror,
romance, and the supernatural. While academic painters such as Charles Fraser
and Thomas Noble conveyed the genre’s gloomy tonalities in their canvases,
Aaron Douglas and Harry Hoffman grappled with the injustices of a modern world.
Other artists, including Alexander Brook and Eugene Thomason, investigated
prevailing stereotypes of rural Southerners—a trope often accentuated in
Southern Gothic literature. Collectively, these images demonstrate that
definitions of the Gothic are neither monolithic nor momentary, inviting us,
instead to contemplate how the Southern Gothic legacy continues to inform our
understanding of the American South.

Props:
Personal identities in the Portrait Photography of Richard SamuelRoberts

The
term “props” brings to mind the objects used in the theater that help establish
the meaning of a scene. In this theater context, the word is shortened from
“properties,” things collectively owned by a theater group. But could the term
also reflect the notion that props show “properties” of a character, offering
layers of information and meaning to a viewer.? “Props” is also a slang term,
meaning “proper respect.” In this show, we analyze the props in photographic
portraits taken by RSR between 1920-1936 to see the way that the “props”—most
often objects chosen by the sitters themselves—tell us something about the
self-identity of the sitters. The objects chosen often underscore the proper
respect due the sitters based on their attainments, but also can give
insights—in an otherwise very formulaic genre—into the inner desires and
predilections of the sitters. Props thus can help us see beyond the surface,
or, perhaps conversely, can reify socially-agreed upon tropes.

As
the 35th Presidential International Scholar, Lydia Estes attempted to uncover
the visual representation of la mujer, or
the woman, in the South American countries of Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and
Peru. Siendo mujer means "being a woman", and
this exhibition represents the conversations she shared with resilient,
creative women for whom art plays a significant role in their female
experiences and vice versa--for whom the female experience plays a significant
role in their art.

It
is further a collection of their artwork, also including her own photographs of
them, their spaces, and moments which contribute to the story each is trying to
tell through their work. Her research revealed more questions like, how
are women stereotypically portrayed in their societies? How are female artists
confronting these images through their own artwork, and how are the mediums
they work in an aspect of their protest? And lastly, how will art change the
female experience in future South American societies?

Southern
Gothic: Intersections of Art and Literature in the Johnson Collection

From Edgar
Allen Poe’s haunting tale of The Gold Bug (1843) to Flannery
O'Connor’s biting short story “Good Country People” (1955), the Southern
Gothic literary tradition has exhumed the American South’s aberrations,
contradictions, and unique sense of dark humor. Drawing exclusively
from the Johnson Collection, Southern Gothic examines how
nineteenth-and twentieth-century artists borrowed from their literary
peers, using a potent visual language to address the tensions between the
South’s idyllic visions and its historical realities.This exhibition is
guest curated by Elizabeth Driscoll Smith, a Ph.D. candidate from the
University California, Santa Barbara, and the Johnson Collection’s 2019
graduate fellow.

Props:
Personal identities in the Portrait Photography of Richard SamuelRoberts

The
term “props” brings to mind the objects used in the theater that help establish
the meaning of a scene. In this theater context, the word is shortened from
“properties,” things collectively owned by a theater group. But could the term
also reflect the notion that props show “properties” of a character, offering
layers of information and meaning to a viewer.? “Props” is also a slang term,
meaning “proper respect.” In this show, we analyze the props in photographic
portraits taken by RSR between 1920-1936 to see the way that the “props”—most
often objects chosen by the sitters themselves—tell us something about the
self-identity of the sitters. The objects chosen often underscore the proper
respect due the sitters based on their attainments, but also can give
insights—in an otherwise very formulaic genre—into the inner desires and
predilections of the sitters. Props thus can help us see beyond the surface,
or, perhaps conversely, can reify socially-agreed upon tropes.

As
the 35th Presidential International Scholar, Lydia Estes attempted to uncover
the visual representation of la mujer, or
the woman, in the South American countries of Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and
Peru. Siendo mujer means "being a woman", and
this exhibition represents the conversations she shared with resilient,
creative women for whom art plays a significant role in their female
experiences and vice versa--for whom the female experience plays a significant
role in their art.

It
is further a collection of their artwork, also including her own photographs of
them, their spaces, and moments which contribute to the story each is trying to
tell through their work. Her research revealed more questions like, how
are women stereotypically portrayed in their societies? How are female artists
confronting these images through their own artwork, and how are the mediums
they work in an aspect of their protest? And lastly, how will art change the
female experience in future South American societies?

From the haunting novels of William
Faulkner to the gritty short stories of Flannery O'Connor, the Southern Gothic
literary tradition has exhumed and examined the American South’s unique
mystery, contradictions, and dark humor. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth
century, American writers, epitomized by Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel
Hawthorne, sought to reinterpret the Gothic imagination of their European
counterparts, dramatizing the cultures and characters of a region in the midst
of civil war and its tumultuous aftermath. Decades later, a new generation of
authors—including Tennessee Williams, Carson McCullers, and Toni Morrison—wove
Gothic elements into their own narratives, exploring the complexities of a changing
social terrain and the ancient spirits that linger in its corners.

With works drawn exclusively from the
Johnson Collection, Southern Gothic illuminates how nineteenth- and
twentieth-century artists employed a potent visual language to transcribe the
tensions between the South’s idyllic aura and its historical realities. Often
described as a mood or sensibility rather than a strict set of thematic or
technical conventions, features of the Southern Gothic can include horror,
romance, and the supernatural. While academic painters such as Charles Fraser
and Thomas Noble conveyed the genre’s gloomy tonalities in their canvases,
Aaron Douglas and Harry Hoffman grappled with the injustices of a modern world.
Other artists, including Alexander Brook and Eugene Thomason, investigated
prevailing stereotypes of rural Southerners—a trope often accentuated in
Southern Gothic literature. Collectively, these images demonstrate that
definitions of the Gothic are neither monolithic nor momentary, inviting us,
instead to contemplate how the Southern Gothic legacy continues to inform our
understanding of the American South.

As
the 35th Presidential International Scholar, Lydia Estes attempted to uncover
the visual representation of la mujer, or
the woman, in the South American countries of Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and
Peru. Siendo mujer means "being a woman", and
this exhibition represents the conversations she shared with resilient,
creative women for whom art plays a significant role in their female
experiences and vice versa--for whom the female experience plays a significant
role in their art.

It
is further a collection of their artwork, also including her own photographs of
them, their spaces, and moments which contribute to the story each is trying to
tell through their work. Her research revealed more questions like, how
are women stereotypically portrayed in their societies? How are female artists
confronting these images through their own artwork, and how are the mediums
they work in an aspect of their protest? And lastly, how will art change the
female experience in future South American societies?

As
the 35th Presidential International Scholar, Lydia Estes attempted to uncover
the visual representation of la mujer, or
the woman, in the South American countries of Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and
Peru. Siendo mujer means "being a woman", and
this exhibition represents the conversations she shared with resilient,
creative women for whom art plays a significant role in their female
experiences and vice versa--for whom the female experience plays a significant
role in their art.

It
is further a collection of their artwork, also including her own photographs of
them, their spaces, and moments which contribute to the story each is trying to
tell through their work. Her research revealed more questions like, how
are women stereotypically portrayed in their societies? How are female artists
confronting these images through their own artwork, and how are the mediums
they work in an aspect of their protest? And lastly, how will art change the
female experience in future South American societies?

As
the 35th Presidential International Scholar, Lydia Estes attempted to uncover
the visual representation of la mujer, or
the woman, in the South American countries of Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and
Peru. Siendo mujer means "being a woman", and
this exhibition represents the conversations she shared with resilient,
creative women for whom art plays a significant role in their female
experiences and vice versa--for whom the female experience plays a significant
role in their art.

It
is further a collection of their artwork, also including her own photographs of
them, their spaces, and moments which contribute to the story each is trying to
tell through their work. Her research revealed more questions like, how
are women stereotypically portrayed in their societies? How are female artists
confronting these images through their own artwork, and how are the mediums
they work in an aspect of their protest? And lastly, how will art change the
female experience in future South American societies?